Published: June 09, 2009 06:57 am      

The cycle of love

This couple’s wedding will center around an idea that has cycled through their relationships history. Mary Barron and Kurt McDaniel, residents of Midwest City, met while on an organized bike ride in the fall of 2004. McDaniel had been biking for about eight or nine years while Barron had just started the month before. They quickly hit if off. It was two years later, while on their own personal biking tour of southeastern Oklahoma that McDaniel proposed to Barron. The two had camped in Sulphur after a long bike journey that day. While Barron was eating breakfast and cleaning up the camp, she discovered a small white box on the table. When she asked what it was, McDaniel popped the question.

The past several years as they considered their wedding options, incorporating their passion for cycling into the theme of the day seemed fitting. That’s when the decision was made to have the wedding take place amidst one of their favorite bicycle tours-- FreeWheel Oklahoma.

In its 31st year, FreeWheel Oklahoma is a week-long organized tour that takes bikers from the Oklahoma-Texas border to the Oklahoma-Kansas border through various routes across the state. This year, it will take place from June 7 though June 13. The route the group is taking this year, McDaniel had taken several years ago. As the couple discussed possible locations for the ceremony, McDaniel said he remembered being very impressed with the beauty and atmosphere of Cheyenne, Okla. As they researched, Barron and McDaniel discovered a small chapel in the town by the museum. They selected this location as their ceremony and reception spot and booked the Cheyenne Memorial Park Chapel for today.

The group will arrive in Cheyenne after a grueling 65 mile ride. After a brief meeting with the tour organizers, McDaniel and Barron will route everyone who wants to attend the ceremony to the chapel where their families will be waiting expectantly for the wedding.

“It’s going to be a casual event for everyone but me and Kurt,” said Barron. While her and McDaniel will change into the traditional wedding garb, the majority of the audience will be in riding shorts and biker jerseys.

In the chapel, McDaniel will guide his single bicycle down the aisle where he will wait for Barron, who will also guide her single-rider bicycle down the aisle. The ceremony will be conducted by a fellow biker on the tour, Rev. Amy Venable from St. Stephens United Methodist Church in Norman. After Venable declares the couple officially husband and wife, Barron and McDaniel will trade in their single-rider bikes for a tandem, or two-seater, bicycle.

“We’ll walk out the tandem together,” said Barron. This is the bike they will use for the remainder of the tour.

For the reception, the couple decided to forgo the traditional punch, stay with the theme and use Gatorade as the drink of choice for their guests. For the purpose of pictures, Barron baked and decorated her own cake to be used in the ceremony. Larger, supermarket cakes will used to the feed the 200 or so FreeWheel bikers.

Despite the day of biking that precedes their wedding ceremony, Barron and McDaniel thought of a way to stay festive all day. Tuesdays on the FreeWheel tour are typically called the crazy day.

“Everyone is encouraged to dress in some sort of costume,” said McDaniel. In the mix of superheros and animal get-ups, McDaniel will be wearing a jersey that looks like a tuxedo. Barron made a white, lace jersey, complete with white, lacy gloves. She will also attach a veil to her helmet.

The couple will spend their two-week honeymoon driving, and yes, biking at times, through national parks in Canada and the United States. They did say that after the tour, they wanted the pace of their trip to be more calm. Sight seeing and hiking will be the main activities of they honeymoon, although their mountain bikes are accompanying them.

“We decided on this trip, we’re going to be more versatile and relaxed,” said Barron.

For more information on the tour, visit www.okfreewheel.com.